Help: choose the check or the attack

SRD 5.2.1 · Actions

At the table

  1. For an ability check, choose one of your skill or tool proficiencies and an ally you can actually assist. The GM decides whether the assistance is possible.
  2. For an attack, distract an enemy within five feet of you. The next attack roll by an ally against that enemy gains Advantage.
  3. Use the benefit before the start of your next turn, when it expires.

Example decision

You use Help to assist an ability check with a skill in which you are proficient. Your ally delays the check until after the start of your next turn. Is the original benefit still waiting?

No; that use of Help has expired.

The ability-check benefit expires if the ally does not use it before the start of your next turn. The attack version also expires at that time. Record the chosen skill or tool for a check, or the chosen enemy for an attack, and remove the marker when used or expired. A new opportunity to Help requires its own valid use.

Watch for this mistake

For check assistance, do not automatically award Advantage merely because another character announces “I help.” The chosen proficiency, proximity and plausible verbal or physical assistance matter.

Ask the table

Which version of Help are you using, and which specific next roll receives the benefit?

Source rule

When you take the Help action, you do one of the following. Assist an Ability Check. Choose one of your skill or tool proficiencies and one ally who is near enough for you to assist verbally or physically when they make an ability check. That ally has Advantage on the next ability check they make with the chosen skill or tool. This benefit expires if the ally doesn’t use it before the start of your next turn. The GM has final say on whether your assistance is possible. Assist an Attack Roll. You momentarily distract an enemy within 5 feet of you, giving Advantage to the next attack roll by one of your allies against that enemy. This benefit expires at the start of your next turn.

Source: SRD 5.2.1, 182–183. Online guide.

Source and reuse

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 (“SRD 5.2.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

The explanation, example and table prompt are Table Ready adaptations; source text has been reflowed and tables reformatted. This guide and its printable card are available under the same CC BY 4.0 license. Independent reference; no official affiliation. These rules are optional for our system-neutral adventures.